San Juan outreach program supports local homeless community

A man sits alone on a closed restaurant’s patio at 11 p.m.

By Chris Schulz Medill Reports SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO – It’s just before 8 p.m. when we arrive at Iniciativa Comunitaria in the Rio Piedras neighborhood of San Juan. Every Friday night, Iniciativa conducts Operación Compasión, a nighttime round to serve the local homeless population by providing food, coffee, juice, condoms, clothes, hygiene kits and […]

Video: Poetry café in Old San Juan draws in locals and tourists

By Grace Austin The Poet’s Passage is an arts and spoken word café in Old San Juan. It brings together local artists and visitors to listen, socialize, work, and buy goods with inspirational poetry emblazed on them. Owner Lady Lee Andrews prides herself on creating an arts space that continues to make money, even after […]

La Perla: Vibrant San Juan neighborhood emerges from checkered reputation

By Nikita Mandhani La Perla is an old neighborhood just outside the northern historic city wall of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. Stretching about 600 meters along the Caribbean Sea, the neighborhood is tucked between Calle Norzagaray and Fort San Cristobal. La Perla has been an infamous neighborhood since its early days. In the 19th […]

What price statehood? For some Puerto Ricans, a loss of independence

LaPerlaMural

By Rebekah Frumkin and Hannah Rank LA PERLA, Puerto Rico — It’s a sunny February morning in La Perla, a low-income neighborhood beside Old San Juan’s northern city wall. Lifelong resident Lourdes López-Rivera stands on a beachside cliff, considering the Caribbean’s cyan expanse. “They keep talking about development here,” she says, shaking her head. “Then […]